Union emails spark strong response

Cricket Australia has reaffirmed its commitment to achieving agreement in the current pay dispute through ongoing "intensive" negotiations after the Australian Cricketers' Association signalled their reluctance to agree to the prospect of resolution through arbitration.

CA Chief Executive James Sutherland announced last Thursday that if an in-principle agreement for a new Memorandum of Understanding could not be reached through the intensive negotiations that are scheduled to continue throughout the weekend, then CA proposed the remaining matters in dispute be referred to mutually agreed, independent arbitration.

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The 230 or so professional players who were rendered unemployed when the previous MOU lapsed on June 30 could then immediately be re-contracted pending resolution of the residual items by an arbiter, to be agreed upon by both parties.

Sutherland spoke of the need to impose a "hard deadline" on the stalled process to ensure players could be contracted for next month's scheduled tour of Bangladesh, and CA indicated the outstanding matters referred for arbitration would also be subject to a time frame of a few weeks to ensure a quick resolution.

In an email sent to players by the ACA today, the union flagged its unease at entering into arbitration due to its belief it would bring about a "significant delay in resolution" of up to nine months, and repeated its preference for a less formal, non-binding mediation process.

Both parties agreed that their immediate priority was to reach an agreed outcome through ongoing negotiations, with Sutherland and his ACA counterpart Alistair Nicholson involved in meetings in Melbourne today.

"At this stage we aren’t going to speculate on details of arbitration, other than to reiterate players would be re-contracted at the commencement of arbitration and remain contracted until the final MOU can be signed," a CA spokesperson said today.

"Our priority remains focused on the current intensive period of negotiation over the next few days in a final effort to reach sufficient agreement on the fundamental issues that would allow a HOA (heads of agreement) to be executed by early next week.”

In a media release issued by the players' union this afternoon, Nicholson reiterated that Australia's 300 or so professional cricketers – who resolved last month not to take part in any CA-organised matches until a new, agreed MOU is signed – were keen to get back on to the playing field.

However, he also refuted claims from Sutherland that among the ACA's conditions placed on reaching a new agreement was that the players have a say in how money earmarked for grassroots cricket was invested.

The Australian reported today that the ACA's proposal to invest a share of player payments into a grassroots investment fund came with the proviso that players receive 30 per cent of agreed forecast revenue (around 25 per cent in previous MOUs), of which 1.1 per cent would then be allocated to the game's growth up to a maximum of $30 million.

It was also reported the union had proposed that money would be invested on the proviso that the players (through the ACA) had input into how it would be spent.

“The players have a really important role to play in the success of our sport but whether they should be decision-makers about where we invest our grassroots funding is a completely different matter,’’ Sutherland told News Corp Australia newspapers today.

“What would the players know about that? What would the ACA know about that?

“Our decision-making authority being compromised by some form of veto is unthinkable. 

"There are not a lot of people around the country who are getting significant pay increases right now. 

"We have an extremely good offer on the table that allows well-paid cricketers to be even better paid."

Nicholson refuted Sutherland's suggestion that the players were looking to become de-facto administrators but noted that they 'were right to seek improved consultation' under a new five-year MOU.

He also claimed that arbitration, which Sutherland confirmed in his announcement would be overseen by a figure such as a "retired Supreme Court judge" as agreed to by both parties, would not only take significant time but cost "hundreds of thousands of dollars which would be better spent in grassroots investment".

"One of the frustrations of this negotiation has been the misapprehension or perhaps mischaracterisation that players want to be administrators," Nicholson said in a statement.

"Its (sic) just not true. The players want to play.

"But its (sic) also true they have a voice and its (sic) right they are heard.

"To be consulted, yes. To be managers, absolutely not.

"At any rate, what matters now is that talks do progress.

"That is my immediate and only focus."

In its initial counter-proposal to CA's original plans to modify the existing MOU tabled last April, the ACA outlined its desire for the establishment of a 'Grassroots Seed Fund'.

The union said that fund would receive an estimated $119 million per year through a 22.5 per cent share of the ACA's then estimate of CA's cricket revenue, which it claimed represented "the minimum investment into grassroots cricket".

The union also advocated "the formation of a Joint New Ventures Development Committee, where the players, the ACA and the administrators agree on joint development of New Ventures (that would include any CA proposed joint ventures)".

While both parties' initial proposals have since been revised and recalibrated in line with acknowledgement by the ACA their independent valuation of CA's potential revenue over the next five years was inflated by around $740m, the union's push for a say in the investment of revenue remains a point of contention.